dressed to the nines
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Dressed smartly.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
' Well, you're all dressed up to the nines! '
Evelyn was dressed up to the nines.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “dressed to the nines” mean?
Dressed smartly.
Is “dressed to the nines” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.